MB&G’s Environmental Services Group Celebrates 25 Years

MB&G is excited to share that 2022 marks the 25^th anniversary of their Environmental Services Group (ESG). MB&G Principal and ESG group lead, Erin VanDehey, says “It’s a wonderful achievement for ESG to celebrate our 25^th anniversary on the heels of the firm’s centennial in 2021. I’m very proud of the exceptional team we have in place who are taking us into this next phase. We are very fortunate to have had the opportunity to build this group alongside many great clients and we’re excited to continue to support their work, in addition to building new relationships, in the years ahead.” Throughout 2022, this important milestone will be commemorated by revisiting ESG’s evolution, highlighting the group’s history, as well as featuring current work.

Erin VanDehey

MB&G made the decision to form an environmental group in 1997 and began the search for the groups’ leader. Dave Cox, who served as the company’s president from 1997 to 2006, later explained, “We made the effort and after a period of six months ended up hiring Robert G. Carson to lead the Environmental Services Group.” Carson held a bachelor’s degree in forest science from Penn State and a master’s degree in wildlife resources from the University of Idaho. His technical expertise included wildlife, wetland, forest, and range ecology and management. Cox recalled, “the original concept was that he would function like a lot of the existing owners at that time (i.e., a busy practitioner with high personal billable hours), but we didn’t envision a large staff coming with Bob as part of the vision. It turned out to be that Bob did pretty much just the opposite of what our perceived working paradigm would be. Bob built a business by hiring employees and then trying to keep them busy.” Many of the early projects completed by ESG were related to environmental permitting for state and local agencies such as the Oregon Department of Transportation which continues to be one of ESGs primary clients.

Erin VanDehey was hired as an Associate and Director of the Environmental Services Group in 2018. By that time, ESG’s founding principal, Bob Carson, had left the firm and new leadership was needed in what had become a very competitive business environment. A well-qualified business leader, VanDehey had previously managed operations for 22 offices and more than 700 staff for a worldwide engineering and environmental services firm. In 2021 she was named as a principal of the firm, becoming the first woman to hold the role in the company.